Student Tech Camp Offers A Glimpse Into The World Of Silicon Valley

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WWR Article Summary (tl;dr)Some very lucky teens are taking part in a unique tech camp this summer, conceived by a husband-wife team who work at Google. Silicon North Stars helps students gain confidence by assisting them with their own tech startup ideas. The program’s marquee event is a weeklong tour of the fabled Silicon Valley headquarters of Google, Facebook and GoPro.

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Ameer Storay has been learning to code and create video games — “not the complex stuff, but the basics,” the eighth-grader said.

Maihoua Xiong, another eighth-grader, has a passion for drawing and animation and wants “to learn new things, even if it’s hard!”

Adelaide Ravensborg said she is set on working in tech. “Whether it’s programming or building, it’s what I want to do,” she said.

The three Twin Cities students, and 13 other tech-focused teens, are this week headed to Silicon Valley on what promises to be an adventure of a lifetime — and possibly a launching pad for future careers.

They are part of a program in its third year called Silicon North Stars, which is a sort of tech camp conceived by Northfield native Steve Grove and his Iowa-born wife Mary, who both now work at tech giant Google.

EXPOSURE TO THE CULTURE
The program’s marquee event is a weeklong tour of the fabled Silicon Valley headquarters of Google, Facebook and GoPro, the creator of action-focused video cameras.

The kids are looking to gain confidence by conceiving their own technology startups, and even pitching them to adults during the California trip.

Grove said he created Silicon North Stars to give “younger people from underserved communities exposure to jobs, careers and technology early in their academic careers to see where they end up.”